Recession: Is it over?

We have been seeing Indian market going up and down over last few days. I thought I will pen (type) down some of my thoughts on Recession with respect to the market data from India perspective. Q2 saw some good results across various sectors except for may be telecom. Here are my views on the trend:

- The toplines of most of the companies have not grown much. Infact IT companies have ensured that they sustain their margin and increase profitability. Across sectors we saw very low growth in revenue (exceptions could be in Banks)

- Reason for profitability for the companies: Low interest cost, lay-offs (made their team lean), tight on internal spending, cautious in marketing spend, raw material costs have come down drastically over last few months.

- Caution: Commodity prices are rising and there is a high probability that 2 quarters down the line we might see some pressure in the income statements of most of the companies. Export oriented companies are having a good time because of the dollar fluctuations. As the crude oil price raise along with other commodities, companies will have to start looking at aggressively improving their topline. We will see some good spend on marketing and sales from now on in most of the sectors.

- Special attn to telecom: A dirty price war is going on Telecom sector. I think this has left consumers in a confused state (well said by my friend Divakar)

- Auto is showing up good sales data. The growth is amazing. As Hindu rightly pointed out- Its the victory for the consumers.

Hope 2010 will change and India will have moments to celebrate. Overall, the market is improving, companies have adapted to new situation and we will see better results in the months to come.

Entrepreneurial Problems

If you ask most of the students who get into a B-School in India about their ambitions, it would be to start a company or to be an entrepreneur. But most of us know the problems that we might face if we open this topic in front of our parents... "You will not get marriage proposals...", "you will have to handle corruption!!!", "you are better off working like me for 40 years for decent salary".

Most of our parents have been working in the same organization throughout their career. They were comfortably placed, they could plan for a house before retirement, 2 or 3 kids, their education and finally retirement corpus fund. When they look back they think it might be almost impossible if you don't adopt their path. They have seen inflation, their salaries have grown from Rs 100 month in 1967 (where they managed to save Rs 20 for themselves and send Rs 20 back home) to Rs 40000 now. They have seen gold grow from nowhere to Rs 16k now. What does this mean? Fear!!! Yes, a great fear. They are not sure if their kid is ready to face these challenges in the long run.

That's the reason why most of the parents force their son or daughter to get married soon after their MBA (around 25... 26) or ensure that they buy a house immediately. That way they are sure that their son/ daughter is responsible ("doesn't try anything risky- especially on business front") for next 20 to 25 years (the loan tenure). What does the kid do.? Always in a confused state until they are married when they finally realize that they have a family to take care of. Then they buy a house... kids... if they stop with 1 its fine else... :)
so the financial pressures start mounting and they start feeling just like the way their parents had felt many years back. A vicious cycle. Isn't it?

Starting a new venture is challenging:
1. Money
2. Relationship
3. Time

all of them go for a toss temporarily. But in a year or 2, you will be fine. You would have understood the strength of your business plan. You might have to get into another job (I am sure you will get a lot... because you know what failure means) just to raise money so that you could start something later... may be 10 year later when you see some white hair around...

Let's come out of this vicious cycle and get on to our dream of making India the most powerful nation. This is democracy and lets not give away our dreams for few emotional factors which can always be managed.

Twitter Vs Not Twitting

There is a lot of hype around social media marketing. Some say its the way to go for corporate branding. I agree that almost all major MNCs have adopted IT systems, but that doesn't mean that having a great online presence will help in building the brand. I know so many of my senior collegues who hardly get time to log into their noncorporate mail accounts.
I am sure its good to market ones profile through linkedin, twitter, facebook and orkut, but I don't agree with the sustainability of these social media based marketing. I have been hearing a lot from marketing gurus on the low cost marketing, its benefits and its reach. I if NRN or Bill Gates will ever get time to tweet. I doubt the strength of social media as a marketing tool. I would wait to watch a real success story. Well, I am trying it somewhere else as well to see the success of tweets and orkuts of the world.
http://www.tomfishburne.com/tomfishburne/2009/07/corporate-twitter.html
I happened to go through this blog by Tom Fishburne. Its an interesting read for folks who will be getting into marketing.
One thing is clear, twitter, orkut and facebook are good means to be connected with friends, collegue but I doubt if they can really be a means of corporate branding.

- Arun (Nettayan)

Sensex at 17K

This is the most surprising thing that is happening now in the financial market. Can't imagine the movement of market from 8k to 17 K at such a pace. Is our market not mature enough to understand the world ? How could the financial situation improve to such a great extent?
I think there is some kind of bubble awaiting. It's time to book partial profits.

Moody's of economy.com said there is always a risk of another major event sending shock waves in financial markets like the Lehman Brothers. The central banks across the globe are tightening the money supply to control inflation and this is going to affect the market for sure.

Be sure to exit at the right time.

hachi tarou monogatari (4 out of 5) - 1987

Its an interesting Japanese movie about a loyal dog. The movie starts of with the birth of puppies and director has taken all efforts to show the birth process naturally. The movie then goes to another place where they show a family which had recently lost their pet dog. The new born puppy is sent to them though the entire family opposes except the daughter. The daughter ignores the dog after her marriage. The portrayal of changing characteristics of human beings with changing environment is portrayed in a creative and artistic manner. The director thus brings the contrast between the man and the dog. They call him hachi which means faithful dog.

Hachi (The dog) brings lots of changes in the life of the family. The head of the family who is a professor in Agri university(you could call him the hero)- Ueno, becomes very close to the dog and he takes care of it like his child. After his daughter's marriage he becomes really close to it and all his thoughts are around Hachi. Every morning and evening the dog accompanies the professor from home to railway station and back. Everyone is amazed by the punctuality of the dog. Every evening Hachi waits for his masters arrival. The station master, a shopkeeper near the station and other on-goers admire the love showered by Hachi (it's the dog's love for the man that gets depicted here). However, the professor dies suddenly one day (1925). Hachi doesn't realize this and continues waiting for the professor at the railway station at the usual spot for next 10 years, till it dies. The screenplay and direction is amazing as you reach the last half an hour of the movie. The director will make you feel for the dog.

I loved it and I would recommend all the readers of this blog also to watch that movie. This movie has given me motivation to watch more Japanese Classics. This is the statue of the dog that is currently there in a railways station in Japan. I think this is based on a true story.

- Arun (Nettayan)

Jet got the best

Jet has finally managed to get a lot of booking with their 50% discount strategy. It seems there were more than 21K booking/day over the last three days. Jet was up by 18% today. With no major news around market has been inching new levels everyday. I believe the system has lots of money, but can it take the market to new levels. 5000+ is a sure over valuation and we might see heavy profit booking. New investors be careful ...
Happy investing

Jet Lag continues

The meeting between the management and the pilots came to an inconclusive end. This is going to be more of an ego clash between the management and the pilots.
Things are pretty much clear that the employees of Jet Airways are unhappy with the management. Jet Airways management need to focus on building employee confidence- through better salaries and employee benefits. I sometimes feel Indian Aviation industry is bleeding unnecessarily because of the low cost approach that most of the airlines are taking up in India. It's better to charge more from customers and satisfy them, rather than taking less and making them unsatisfied with poor service. It's better to service less in a profitable way rather than servicing a large volume in loss.
Will it be possible for Jet Airways to revive its business? How will it be able to bring in employee loyalty? How will it bring in customer ?

Jet Airways - Will it hit the sky?

This is interesting. India is wholly dependent on the services industry. Whether it's IT, tourism, hospitality. It will be an interesting situation if one lakh employess of all the big IT companies (TCS, Infy, Wipro) plan to take sick (please read it as sick) leave for a whole week. Just a thought ... nothing more to write :)
I think time has come for the employees to show their power to their management. Can Jet Airways take bold decisions? Will we see some large scale lay off and organization re-structuring in Jet Airwways?
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/news/business/india-business/Jet-Airways-to-hold-talks-with-pilots-on-Friday-/articleshow/4995692.cms

Up Up and Down

While in B-school, we are always taught that Airline industry is not a good business to get into. Today Jet Airways has a bigger problem than just running their existing business. The most interesting aspect of all this is Jet Airways stock price has not gone down a bit over last 2 days, infact it has gone up by more than 5%!!! What does this mean???
I had a short discussion with my friend Anuj, who also tracks stock markets like me. Some of the points that came out were:
1. Market feels that jet airways is better off being idle, as operations will only add to the cost
2. They are better off selling their assets to some other company
I think the market is also trying to factor in these points. We tried doing some web search of the profit making airline companies in the world and some interesting facts are given below. Most profitable airline companies are:
1) FedEx
2) Lufthansa Group
3) British Airways
4) Singapore Airlines Group
5) Qantas
6) Emirates
7) ANA
8) Cathay Pacific
9) Air France / KLM Group
10) Southwest Airlines
Though the data is slightly outdates, most of these airlines have been able to do good business because of their global presence except for Southwest airlines.
Well, we will have to wait now to see Mr.Goyal's next step or "Strategy".

Living Like A Man - Kamal Haasan

This is an interesting link on Kamal's interview in NDTV. An interesting perspective on Marriage, life, cinema & religion. He has shown his boldness throughout is life which is visible in his scripts. Its high time he makes a English movie under International banner.

Congrats Kamal on your 50 years in India Cinema.

http://www.ndtv.com/news/india/marriage_was_a_compromise_kamal_haasan.php

Kanthasamy Vs State of Play

I am a movie buff. i kind of try to watch movies of different genre. This week i got chance to watch 2 movies - Kanthasamy (Tamil) and State of Play (Eng). They didn't have anything is common. I went to watch Kanthasamy with lots of expectation and knowing Susi Ganeshan's other movies like Thiruttu Payyale, I knew that the screen play would be good coupled with some exciting twists. Though Susi has tried to come out with a fast pace movie, he has completely failed in removing unnecessary stuffs from the movie. I think the blame would completely go to Producer who might have asked him to add lots of masala and a comedy track in the movie. The director has tried to justify each and every step taken by Vikram from the start to the end. He has tried to give a logical meaning to the entire movie. Its high time Tamil Industry understands the imortance of not having unnecessary songs in the movie. The best part in the movie is Vikram's acting, camera man's work, excellent settings and directors research work in terms of how the Indian black money is there across the world. The worst part in the movie was in force fitting unnecessary songs, comedy tracks, unnecessary focus on glamour & camera work while in Mexico. I feel Susi Ganeshan could have done a better job in terms of screenplay to bring a better impact on the audience as I felt the first half to be boring and long. Of course, Susi Ganeshan needs to go to an acting school :)
On the other hand, "State of Play" is a movie with very minimum set up. Most of the movie gets over in the reporter's office. I don't want to write the stories over here as you will find them in Wikipedia. But it's high time Kollywood starts focusing on screen play as the real strength lies in the screenplay and the story. I liked the style of Russell Crowe and the way he has delivered his role is amazing. The style, simplicity and dialog delivery is cool. The movie requires little bit of patience as there are lots of twists in the movie. The real power of script and direction can be seen in this movie. Of course this will never beat my all time favorite ones like Shawshank redemption or Taken.
Just thought of typing down my views after watching a political thriller which pens on the power of writer or a reporter.

My paintings...

http://arunspainting.blogspot.com/
If you are visiting this blog, you may very well get into my painting site and give your comments.

Bhubaneswar trip

My First Camel Ride

It was pleasant surprise for me when I decided to go to Bhubaneswar!!! Does this statement sound ok?

Yeah… it was indeed a great decision. We had to take 2 and half days of leaves, limited time to enjoy and high budget.
So what? It was Biswa's marriage, one of my best friends and only one from Bhubaneswar. I dare not to miss this one :)

The marriage was on 26th June. There was big planning amongst our gang from Great Lakes - Prasadh, Divakar, Vimal, Sat, Sudarshan and me.
The plan was to travel in train as that was the cheapest. The journey from Bangalore to Bhubaneswar in the Prashanti express was my longest journey. It was a 30 hour travel and the driver just managed to reach us on time. The entire journey went watching movies on my i-pod, sight-seeing and eating.
Our friends from Chennai had reached Bhubaneswar few hours before us. If you are planning to visit Bhubaneswar, never plan to go there during Feb to July. You will be deep fried. Just like other coastal areas in India, Bhubaneswar is very hot and humid during this period. It’s best to go there during the month of Sept to Jan.
We started finalizing on the places to be visited. We just had one & half days with us to roam around. Bhubaneswar is associated with cluster of magnificent temples, mostly built during the Kalinga period.
26th June
The marriage was in the afternoon. So we decided to go to some of the nearby places in the morning and then visit the marriage hall for our lunch J. We started off by going to Lingaraj temple. It’s a beautiful temple. Sculpture and architecture fused elegantly to create a perfect harmony. You are not allowed to get inside the temple if you are not a Hindu and no electronic gadgets (like cell phone, cameras) are allowed inside.
After visiting this temple, we went to Khandagiri & Udayagiri. The twin hills of Khandagiri & Udayagiri, few kilometers from Bhubaneswar, served as the site of an ancient Jain monastery. We decided to climb the hill to get a good view of the whole place.
There were some showers when we visited this place. We decided to watch the entire marriage rituals and enjoy the traditional food. The process was long with some interesting games towards the end. We came to know from people around that we could book for bus tickets to see places in Orissa through OTDC (Orissa Tourism Development Corporation). We went ahead and booked the ticket for the next day.
27th June
Our plan was to take up the bus that goes to Konark and Puri. Here is a fact for people who look out for information: Just like Delhi-Agra-Jaipur, Bhubaneswar-Konark-Puri forms a Golden triangle. It’s better to take OTDC bus rather than taking up any cab because it’s very safe and cost-effective. Our first stop was at a place by name Ekamra (I am not sure if this is right, I forgot the name of this place. I got this name through Google search). May be my friends can help in getting this name right. I bought few handcrafts and bags here. They were one of the cheapest that I had seen anywhere in India. Our next stop was at Konark. Unfortunately, our bus had to stop few kms before our destination due to some technical failure. It was small village with green lush around. We decided to explore the place till OTDC arranged for another bus. The place had lots of coconut trees round and to our misfortune there was no one over there to help us with some tender coconut. Within half an hour we got into the alternate bus which OTDC had arranged. Throughout the journey our guide was giving explanations on the places, statues, rivers, etc that were passing by. The places exhibited natural splendor that showed the high quality art work of Kalinga or other great dynasties of Orrisa.
We stopped at Konark to see the mighty Sun temple. The entire structure was built with highest level of precision and thinking. The temple is now a world heritage site. The entire complex was designed in the form of a huge chariot drawn by seven spirited horses on twelve pairs of exquisitely decorated wheels. You will see the entire life of man from birth till death including various sexual positions as depicted in Kamasutra shown as a sculpture here.
Some taking some beautiful snaps at Konark, we had our lunch and went to a nearby beach. The beaches are clean and there are some scenic spots on the way from Konark to Puri temple. Sat and I had a camel ride which was one of the joyous moments for me. We had gone there few days after the rath yathra and hence, we had to visit a nearby temple where the deity was placed.
Interesting fact: Once a year, Jaganatha, along with Baladeva, and Subhadra, are taken out of the temple and pulled on huge chariots through the streets of Puri. It is from these huge chariots that the English word 'juggernaut' originates.
It’s a small temple as compared to large ones that we see in south India. But one can see a large and unmanageable crowd here.
We started from Puri to Bhubaneswar and came back to our hotel. We had our dinner at the hotel. We were all tired and we knew that we still had a long way to go (approx 20 hours of journey to Chennai). The train was fully packed but we managed to argue and get our birth back to us which were otherwise occupied by some ticketless travelers.
The beautiful trip to Bhubaneswar will remain in our hearts forever. I should thank my friend Biswa for creating such an opportunity to us. The beautiful place has left a footprint in our heart that will be remembered forever by all us.

Kodai Trip - A pleasent get together :)

Saravanan's Marriage & Kodai Trip
It's been a marriage season over here and I had ensured that I should be part of marriage ceremony of all my close friends(we should be with them during tough times... isn't it ;) ... ). This time it was Saravanan (The tsunami). It was kind of a big get-together for us. The entire gang from GCT was there for the marriage.

Here we go with the list, starting from the left hand side: Arun Kumar (All in all alagu raasa), Venkat (maandi), Raj Bharthi (Thee), Karthikeyan (Anugundu... well you know the rest), Rajesh shah (Hex machi), Karthik (the name will get censored), Senthil, Arun (Nettayan), Fazlin (Pilir), Babu (Bujji Bajji), Praveen (Kaatuvaasi kootathin thalaivan), Siva Kumar, Siva Sakthi (emerging body builder). Ofcourse you can see Saravanan & his wife sitting there.

After the marriage, since we had time till the evening, we decided to go for a movie. After a long walk we reached a theatre. The movie shown there was"Thoranai", that had got released on the same day. Please don't watch the movie even if someone gives the pirated DVD for free :P ....
We took the train to Kodai road at night. Our van was waiting for us at Kodai Road station at 6 AM next morning.
Well nothing much to say about Kodaikanal. It's more about experiencing it. A must go for any get together. The places are pleasent and May end or early june is excellent. There is mild rain coupled with slightly pinching chillness. Some of the places of interest might be
1. Waterfall on the way to Kodaikanal. An Excellent view point.
2. Kurinji Temple
3. Chettiyar Garden (Not sure whether I named it right)
4. Bear water falls
5. Pine forrest
6. Suicide point
7. Guna cave (Place where Kamal shouts Abirami Abirami... )
8. Kodaikanal lake - Go for a cycle ride around it. Its beautiful. If you have time, you may get into Sai Baba Temple as well.We got a house in Kodaikanal. The stay was pleasent and the total cost was not very high.
My next trip is to Bhubaneshwar. I will update on it soon.

One day visit to Kanyakumari

My fren's marriage & Kanyakumari trip

Five of us - Arun (Nettayan), Maghu, Parimala, Anuradha and Parimala's sister, were travelling to Valliyoor to attend Chitra's marriage. We thought it would be good to make a visit to Kanyakumari which is known for it's scenic beauty. So soon after the marriage, we hopped into a cab to Kanyakumari. The travel from Valliyoor to Kanyakumari was beautiful. The weather was luckily pleasent on that day.

We first went to Vattakottai fort. It's a small fort but the view from the fort towards the sea was amazing. You will get real view of nature. I think it's kind of a picnic spot for villages near Kanyakumari.

Our plan was to go back to Valliyoor by 5 PM. It was already 1 PM by the time we came out of the fort. So we decided to get into a hotel for a quick lunch. After that we had a boat ride into the sea. Our first stop was at Vivekananda Rock. Just to give a history on the rock:
The memorial stands on one of two rocks located about 500 meters off mainland India's southernmost tip. It was built in 1970 by the Vivekananda Rock Memorial Committee in honour of the visit of the great spiritual teacher Swami Vivekananda to Shripada Parai during the month of December 1892 for deep meditation and enlightenment. He swam to this rock and meditated about the past, present and future of India. It is said that he attained enlightenment on the rock, and henceforth became a reformer and philosopher.


We went around the place. Had some photo sessions. We again took the boat that came by to Thiruvalluvar statue. The Thiruvalluvar Statue is a 133 feet (40.5 m) tall stone sculpture of the Tamil poet and saint Tiruvalluvar, author of the Thirukkural. It was completed in 2000 and is located atop a small island near the town of Kanyakumari, where two seas and an ocean meet; the Bay of Bengal, the Arabian Sea, and the Indian Ocean .

It's one of the most memorable trip. I got chance to have Tirunelveli halwa, got hands on to some of the best tastes of South Tamilnadu and throughout the trip the gang was always active making lots of noise :)

Goa - Masti ki Paatshaala...

Best Planning for your Goa Trip

This is one of the best trips that I have had so far along with my friends. We were finding it very difficult to make the complete plan for our Goa trip. We knew that there were lots of tourists spots in Goa, but we were never sure on which spot would give us the real kick. So here I go with the itenary for folks who are planning for Goa trip. This blog is purely for bachelors who might have an overall budget of around Rs 6000 + for a trip (including journey through bus or train). You needn't carry all your heavy dresses (it's Goa - buy cool dresses from there for few days)

You need atleast 4 days to enjoy one part of the Goa. Here goes the plan:

1. Book the tickets well in advance. Book tickets only if they are confirmed, don't go for RAC or WL. They will never get cleared ( we moved up by just 2 seats in RAC even though we had booked 2 months in advance)

2. After reaching Goa station or bus stand, take the bus (from Panjim) to Calangute. If you are really tired you can hire a taxi/ tempo (or if you are at Vasco). But bus journey is really good.

Day 1:

3. Calangute is a beautiful beach . You will see lots of agents who can provide you cheap accomodation (ours was 500 per head for 3 days, we got a big furnished house). I am sure you will get a decent bargain if you have a big gang. After settling in a room. You can all do a small shopping. Near Calangute beach you will find lots of shops selling Goan hats, dresses, t-shirts, swim wears etc... You will find decent veg/non-veg restuarants. Most of these hotels from beer & liquor. The only disadvantage of staying in Calangute was the restuarants were very coslty. You might still find hotel sagar or blue bay near the beach which provide good food.

After having bath in the sea, you can all go for water sport games (para sailing, banana ride, jet skiing, bumper ride) in the Calangute. All the games are safe and you will enjoy them the most. You may also buy a volleyball or cricket bat/ball and try your luck near the beach.

Goa is all about life after sunset. Its time to get into a shack on the beach side (you will find a lot of them as shown in the picture). You can enjoy beach side air and have dinner. Goa is alive the entire night.

Day 2:

4. Time to hire bike of your choice. Move around and ask some of the rental agents for your dream bikes. Avenger & thunderbird is available almost everywhere for Rs 300 to Rs 400 per day. Take a ride to Baga beach (Calangute beach & Baga beach are connected). There are some beautiful view points at Baga beach. There are also good place to eat & drink near Baga beach. In the meantime if you feel like doing some good shopping, you can travel to Anjuna beach which is also few kms away from Calangute.

5. There is an interesting fort called Aguada fort around 10 to 15 Km from Calagute. You can have a bike trip to that place. You will find some of the best photos from "Dil Chahtha Hai" here.

It's a good place and must watch for anyone after your experience with beach water. The drive is also great.

6. Come back to your room. Take rest for sometime, becoz the night is gonna be rocking hard for you. Take your bikes at around 10 or 10:30 PM. Drive it to some pub near Baga beach. I would suggest Tito's (it's a good pub with excellent disc). The entry charges are slightly high if you are a stag but it's still worth it. The DJ is excellent and you get good drinks inside. The dance floor will be full by midnight with lots of girls, boys, foreigners. You might come back to your room by around 4 or 5 AM next day.

Day 3:

7. This is the day for some sort of relaxation. You can get into a massage center and relax there. There are lots of massage/ Spa centers near Calangute and Baga. Refresh yourself. Have a tattoo on you hand, neck or wherever you want to.

8. You can go around the churches and temples near Calangute and complete the day.

Day 4:

9. Time to pack up your things. You can start from Calangute in the morning and give a visit to Panjim. There are some good spots like Dona Paulo (Ek Duje keliye - suicide spot). You can take a boat ride over there and look around the island nearby.

That's it. If you wish to have a cruise ride, you will find a lot of them at Panjim. The rides start from 6:30 PM. The ride is very pleasent. You will find floating Casino also here. Overall it's fun. If you are travelling from Goa to Chennai or Bangalore through train, the route is pleasent. Don't miss that. You will also find good sambar vadas in a hotel near Londa Jn, where the train stops for more than an hour.

Enjoy the trip!!! Choose the right season and a good reason to enjoy :)

Trip to South-West Karnataka

A Trip to Mangalore
Bounded by the Arabian Sea and the Western Ghat mountain ranges, Mangalore is in the southwestern part of Karnataka. So here is how a trip to Mangalore can be made interesting. A trip to Mangalore is sure to have a good trekking expedition. So plan for that as well.

Kukke Subramanya Temple: You can start of you journey to Mangalore or South-West Karnataka by going to “Subramanya”, know for the famous “Kukke Subramanya Temple” (Snake god). The train stops at Subramanya junction and you will find good number of jeeps/ buses that will take you to Subramanya junction. Don’t try to stay within the village as it’s very difficult to get good food out there. Hotels near Subramanya temple are excellent. You can take a quick bath either in the river or hotels near the temple. It’s a beautiful temple and the place is filled with religious air. For the adventurous folks out there, there is a beautiful trekking spot in Subramanya called – “ Kumara Parvatha”.
Kumara Parvatha Trekking: You can ask for Kumara Parvatha near the temple. A small way just before the temple leads to a road which in turn leads to the starting point of the exciting trek. Its important to carry sufficient water, lemon, fruits, biscuits, bread etc for the trek. The plan has to be to reach the top before sunset, stay there the whole night, watch sun rise and then come back. Plan for food, tent and water accordingly.
The first stage of the trek goes through forest and the path is very steep. You tend to get tired pretty quickly because of the luggage that you might be carrying. Slowing the forests opens into grass covered lands and you will soon be walking between 2 hills (crossing from one to the other).

After 3 hours or so you will reach a spot called “Battara Mane”. This is a small farm land managed and run by Narayana Bhat and family. This is the stopover point for the trek and is also used for the night stay usually during the return journey as the trek can not be completed in a single day due to its toughness and distance. The Bhatt family provide trekkers with night shelter, water and plain vegetarian meal on request at a nominal price. Trekkers need to use their own sleeping bags though. PH No:+91-9448647947
From bhattara mane the path is little flatter for about 1-1.5 km and consists of going over small hills. stage for the trekkers need to register with a forest office check post.There are two observations platforms between the bhattara mane and the mantapa.The ascent from here is gradual and the mountain face is covered with thick green grass. This stage culminates near the top of the mountain which is covered with thick forest.
So if you start at around 10 AM in the morning, you can reach Battara Mane by 1:30 or 2:00 PM. You can have lunch there, take rest for sometime and then start your trip to the top. You can have all the fun at the top and enjoy the evening there at the top.
Mangalore: Once you are back from trekking, you can refresh yourself and take a bus or cab to Mangalore. There are good numbers of hotels in Mangalore. It will take 3 hours to reach Mangalore and once you have settled down in a hotel room in Mangalore, you can relax by going around to nearby temples, churches. There is a beautiful beach in Mangalore called – Pannambur Beach.
The scenary is excellent and you can also have a ride into the sea in the fishermen’s boat. Believe me it’s amazing and safe (you will be wearing life jacket). The food is excellent is Mangalore. Apart from all this there is Pilikulla Nisarga Dhama, which consists of water theme park, zoo and river side boating. You can try to explore this area as well. The most interesting place to visit in Mangalore is “Pabbas Ice Cream Parlour”. There are lots of varieties of ice creams and believe me they are far better and cheaper than corner shop or Baskin Robbins. The best ice cream parlourI have had so far (though this might be close to a ice cream parlour in Payyannur).
With 2 days of relaxation in Mangalore, you can give a visit to nearby Udipi.
Udupi: You can easily find a good place to stay near Udupi bus stand. The food is excellent here. Don’t miss to have the masala dosas of Udupi. You can take on a bus to St.Mary’s island from Udupi bus stand. The island is beautiful and a must visit place. The tickets are cheap and the boat ride is also beautiful. You will also find Malpe beach nearby. After the ride to St.Mary’s island, you can relax at Malpe beach & trying some water sports.
There are many more beautiful beaches and trekking spots in the Western Ghats which you can try out if you have a long vacation. But these are the must see spots if you are planning for a 4- 5 day vacation.
Enjoy!!!